Gulf drug cartel lieutenant Hugo Salinas Cortinas arrested near Texas border

A top lieutenant of the ruthless Gulf drug cartel, known as “The Goat,” has been arrested in Mexico near the US border, local police announced.  

Suspect Hugo Salinas Cortinas is believed to be one of the leaders of the Gulf cartel’s Metros faction and has been tied to 23 attacks on police officers and nine targeting the military.

Salinas Cortinas, whose nickname in Spanish, “La Cabra,” means “The Goat,” was apprehended in Tamaulipas Friday, but news of his capture was not announced by Mexico’s police and the military until Monday.

Police said Salinas Cortinas was busted with two guns and 600 suspected fentanyl pills.

He allegedly headed up drug and migrant smuggling along a stretch of the Mexican side of the Rio Grande river, also known as the Rio Bravo.

He has been accused of controlling drug trafficking in a territory comprising the towns of Camargo and Miguel Aleman, across the border from the Texas towns of Rio Grande City and Roma.

Local media reported that a woman identified in 2021 as his wife had been arrested in Roma, Texas after police found more than $800,000 hidden in shoeboxes and backpacks in her home.

Following his arrest, Salinas Cortinas was transferred to Mexico City to face criminal charges.

The Gulf cartel made international headlines in March, when some of its members allegedly kidnapped American citizens in Mexico, leaving two people dead.

The cartel’s Scorpions faction later apologized for the violent March 3 abduction in the city of Matamoras and turned over five gang members to the authorities.

With Post wires